Luck of the Draw 2

[mdaddyrabbit]

For those of you following my thread Luck of the Draw, I was asked to post a shot from my never ending quest to get my exposure right. This is of my dog, so let me set the scene for you: 16x12 room with 2 lamps one on each end with 60 watt bulbs to work with. Camera 20D with 420EX flash 18-55mm lens. When looking at the Histogram everything looks to be on the left side.

[Scottes]

Just because the histogram is to the left doesn't mean that it's not properly exposed. Looking at the dog's face - which is pretty white - you could not have exposed any more without major blow-out.

A histogram is a histogram. It is not an indication of a proper exposure. It's best use - about the only use I have for it - is to make sure that it's not too far to the right, which would indicate overexposure of course. That's bad. Any other histogram is just a histogram.


What you're seeing is common with flashes. As the distance to the subject double the light falling on it is cut in half. So the magazine rack in the background is receiving 1/4th, if not 1/8th, the amount of flash light that the dog is receiving.

[PhotosGuy]

As the distance to the subject double the light falling on it is cut in half. You didn't really mean that, did you Scott? Maybe you were just simplifying.
Light fall-off is similar to f-stop numbers.
2 2.8 4 5.6 8 11 16
As the distance changes from one # to the next, the light intensity will be doubled or halved, depending on which direction you're going. When looking at the Histogram everything looks to be on the left side. I'm surprised that the dog isn't darker. The light reflecting off the TV screen should have thrown the exposure to the dark side (left end) of the histogram, which it seems to have done, but the dog looks OK.
Oh wait, you said "with 2 lamps one on each end with 60 watt bulbs to work with." which I thought you meant you exposed with them, but it's a flash shot, isn't it? Sorry, all bets are off then! ;) I don't use auto flash.

[Scottes]

You didn't really mean that, did you Scott? Maybe you were just simplifying.
Light fall-off is similar to f-stop numbers.
2 2.8 4 5.6 8 11 16
Yes, I meant it.

I guess I was just being simple. :-)
Thanks for the clarification.